


Losing One's Marbles

by Palefire73



Series: Loki Origins [14]
Category: Frigga - Fandom, Fulla - Fandom, Loki - Fandom, Thor - Fandom, odin - Fandom
Genre: Cute Loki, Frigga is a great Mother, Gen, Magic, Sibling Rivalry, young loki, young thor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 18:47:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6126583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palefire73/pseuds/Palefire73
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Loki wants is lots of marbles, but he is particular about just which colours he prefers.....</p><p>Written as a thank you to Deva readers, who have looked at my profile 10K times!!!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Losing One's Marbles

**Author's Note:**

> The picture is my own photomanipulation of marbles. If you share, download, copy etc, then do not remove my name. It took time and effort and is a gift from me to everyone, not something to redistribute either as an anonymous picture, or even as your own. Thank you!

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The beautiful Queen of Asgard looked out of the nursery windows and sighed. It was not often that the realm had inclement weather, but this was the fourth consecutive day of heavy rain and she had not been able to entertain the boys outside as she normally would. They were fairly good boys and had played with just about every toy in their not insubstantial collection, had entertained their friends for a few hours here and there each day and had attended their lessons, but the incessant downpour had now seriously outstayed its welcome and everyone’s patience was wearing thin.

 

The morning had seen them take over a corner of the Palace kitchens so that she and Fulla could oversee Loki’s first ever attempt at baking something while Thor proudly managed to make his by himself in demonstration to the younger boy. How Odin had kept a straight face when he nearly broke a tooth on the biscuit Loki had excitedly presented to him at lunchtime was beyond her. Yet the All-Father had enthusiastically chewed on the hard sweet culinary effort of his younger son, swallowed it (with a hefty draught of Midgardian tea in an effort to soften the thing) and had told the little Prince that he would make a fine baker one day, whereupon a delighted grin spread on the young boy’s face. Taking one of the proffered biscuits herself, Frigga was thankful of her ability to magically make it more edible and it wasn’t long before he was asking to make some more.

 

However, the Head Chef had turned them away; the staff were on full steam ahead preparing the evening meals for all those resident in the huge building and a hot busy kitchen was no place for children to be getting covered in flour and sugar.

 

Frigga had returned to the nursery with the boys and Fulla, her lady-in-waiting, and had suggested they have a game of marbles, one of the many games she had seen on other realms and had brought back to Asgard to enrich the lives of her children. Everything had gone well and she had been able to come to relax in the peace and quiet and read a book for a while.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Where did that just go?!” Exclaimed Thor, searching the vicinity of where the two boys were playing marbles, but the especially decorative glass sphere had disappeared. He had taken a shot with his most prized marble to try to win the game; it was larger than his others and was made of translucent blue glass with opaque red streaks running through the middle. When he rolled it across the floor, the colours would rotate and the red inside looked like he imagined his cloak would if he could fly; it rippled magnificently against the background blue. Needless to say he was immensely proud of it, but he must have rolled it too fast this time, for it was nowhere to be seen and consequently he could not claim Loki’s dispersed marbles as his winnings. His winnings pot would remain empty.

 

The younger Prince’s marbles were in the unlikely colours of green and gold. Thor could have sworn they were blue and gold when their mother had first brought them the game, but Loki had quickly toddled off with his netted bag of marbles to the soft seating area, where he tipped them onto a cushion to look at. Thor, meanwhile, had stayed with his mother to learn the rules of the game. They were quite simple; all the marbles except six for each player were placed inside a chalked out circle. Then there was a larger chalked circle. The players took turns to aim a marble to the grouped marbles to try to knock them out of the inner circle, but they had to let go of the aimed marble just as it crossed the outer circle. Any marbles that were knocked out were claimed as winnings and placed in the pot of the player who had knocked them out. Points were awarded at the end of the game for the marbles collected. You had two points added to your score for every opponent’s marble collected and one point taken away for every marble you had collected that was your own. However, there was one more thing. Each player had one large marble and that was the special one. It was worth twenty extra points to your opponent if they managed to capture it.

 

When they had beckoned Loki back over to play, his marbles were green and gold. Thor had been puzzled, but Frigga had not said anything, so he had left the matter, assuming he had been mistaken.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Hearing a noise, the two women looked over to where the Princes were playing to see Thor crawling about on his hands and knees looking for something, while Loki was grabbing at marbles from outside the ‘home’ inner circle and placing them in his pot. They smiled knowingly at each other; it was so nice to see them getting along so well, especially after many long hours stuck indoors. Frigga had resolved that they would go out the following day no matter the weather. They would simply have to dress accordingly. Maybe they could go to the pond in her garden and see if there were any interesting animals living in there, or walk up to the waterfall that cascaded down off a large cliff near a grove of Asgardian Beech trees along the river. Sipping her cup of tea, she carried on reading her book.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Thor was not very happy that his prized marble had seemingly disappeared. He turned back to ask Loki if he had seen it and saw that he was scooping up all the displaced marbles into his winnings pot.

 

“What are you doing?!” He exclaimed.

“You did not win, so Loki gets them.” Stated the little boy matter-of-factly. “It is the rules.”

“You did not even hear the rules!” Replied Thor, “Have you seen where my mightiest marble went?” He asked, resuming his search.

“No.” Replied Loki, now stirring his hand around in the pot of captured marbles noisily.

Thor crawled around on his hands and knees, lifting up toys and books which were lying around, having been discarded after their owners grew bored of them, trying to find where the red and blue glass sphere had gone. Meanwhile, Loki was trying to count how many red and blue marbles he had so he could see if Thor had more than he did. Unfortunately, he did not have the patience or the skill to carry out this investigation and the crux of the matter was that he simply wanted more marbles than his brother had.

 

Exasperated that the large marble was nowhere to be seen, Thor sighed and gave up his search and went back to where Loki was still sitting next to their game. He looked at the spread of marbles with puzzlement; there seemed to be more green and gold ones than he remembered. He looked quizzically at his brother.

“Have you swapped some of mine for yours?” He asked.

“No.” Replied Loki, “It is my turn now.”

“Hmmm…” Mumbled Thor and sat back on his heels to watch. Loki’s co-ordination was not terribly good and he was confident the younger Prince would not win anyway. So it was with annoyance that the marble Loki sent towards the cluster of coloured glass balls seemed to hit just the right one to send a lot more of Thor’s marbles out of range. He frowned as Loki picked up his winnings and deposited them in his pot loudly, grinning from ear to ear.

 

There was only one thing for it. Thor had to displace Loki’s biggest marble and capture it to win those coveted twenty points all in one go. It would take a very good aim and a fast strike to accomplish and so he took his time before sending in a red and blue marble at high speed.

 

Yes! It was aiming straight for the large green and gold marble and it was fast! It would surely do the trick.

 

But then right before his eyes, it veered to one side and rolled straight past its target, rolling to a halt in amongst a large group of green and gold. Thor scanned the field of marbles again… had he not had more than this? The proportion of Loki’s to his seemed to have increased and just how had his last shot gone so badly off-course at the last second? He glanced at his brother suspiciously to see him staring at the red and blue marble that had missed its target so sorrily and his expression darkened. He looked at the game again and noticed the amount of red and blue marbles seemed to have decreased again!

 

“Loki! You are cheating!” Thor blurted and launched himself at the little boy, snatching the winnings pot from him. As Loki began to wail, Thor looked in it to see all the marbles inside were green and gold, not red and blue as they had been when Loki had picked them up! Even though it would mean he would lose the game on scores, he was ending up with far more marbles in his own colour than Thor had – so he was cheating all the same! He emptied the pot out, spilling all the marbles onto the floor.

 

“I am telling Mother!” He pronounced and got to his feet, “This is cheating! You’re not to use magic – Mother said so!” He stormed off, leaving a bewildered three year old sitting amongst the brightly coloured spheres with tears spilling down his cheeks. As Loki watched Thor stomping off towards the part of the nursery where their mother was reading with her lady-in-waiting, a glimmer of light caught his eye and he crawled over towards it. Lifting the edge of the rug up, he saw that it was Thor’s prized large marble and he quickly scooped it up, returning to where he had been sitting. Gathering the spilled winnings back into his pot, he placed the large red and blue marble on top and waggled his plump little fingers, turning it green and gold to match. Happy again, he passed his hand over all the remaining marbles which were still in the game marked out on the floor awaiting their fate. Now grinning from ear to ear, Loki sat looking around contentedly at his handiwork.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Mother! Mother! Tell Loki to stop cheating!”

 

Frigga looked up from the book of poetry she was reading and annotating and sighed at the golden-haired Prince standing before her with an indignant face upon him.

 

“Whatever is the matter, Thor?” She asked patiently.

“He is cheating at the game you showed us! He has been winning every time and now he is simply spoiling the whole game by using magic!”

 

The Queen of Asgard pondered upon this a moment. Had Loki been cheating? Or was he simply better at the game than Thor was? She smiled indulgently at the elder Prince, “I am sure he is not intending to influence the game unfairly.” Rising from her chair near one of the picture windows of the nursery, she set her book down on a table and gave Fulla a brief look of amusement. “Come along then, show me what you mean.”

 

Thor took her hand and led her over to the play area of the nursery where Loki, who had only just turned three, was sitting on the floor surrounded by dozens of small glass spheres in all kinds of sizes and… Frigga frowned and felt awful for doubting Thor. As her golden haired son complained loudly that all his marbles had somehow disappeared, Loki looked up to her from blue eyes wide with happiness as he played with the gold and green marbles gathered around him.

 

Half of which used to be red and blue.

**Author's Note:**

> My own made up game from how we played as children, so any marbles purists out there - don't start on me about the rules. They are mine!!! And I do what I want ;)


End file.
